Motivate Guests to Reply and Register

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Well-known member

How would we motivate guests to reply and register ?
In xenforo under every thread for guest's view, this display "(no permission to reply". This is not the best way to motivate guests to post in your site

My suggestion for xenforo is to make quickreply editor appear under threads for guests to write posts then by hitting posts it automatically redirect them to the register page. Then, posts would appear after activation by email.

Active member

I must say that this is really great idea. I was browsing some forum when I saw a thread I could provide solution for, but I didn't want to waste time to register. But, scrolling down I saw the editor and thought that I could post, so I went ahead and wrote my post, clicked the "Post" button and I was redirected to the registration page. I was a bit disappointed, but then I saw what the heck and registered anyway.
So +1 to this idea, great motivation to guests. But my + suggestion to this is bellow the editor to be noted that you will be redirected to the registration page, with smaller font.

Active member

Or have an option to allow board guests reply without the need to register first so their post is shown.
A CAPTCHA option should be also available.
Users will be able to post by providing their email, name (a blog-like commenting system). Maybe a URL too?
Gravatar or a facebook prompt, to get their avatar, would personalize somehow that unknown person.
See here a UI example.

Demanding someone that has already expressed their thoughts on a topic to register, so what they've written can get shown in public, feels kinda wrong. It'd be better if instead of having a "Register Now (fill all these fields or you'll never be heard)" message, the guests would get an "Activate your email now, so your comment gets shown". It's more user friendly and it doesn't need any extra fields. We've already given our email, our name and filled up the captcha.
Maybe in the case where the username (Name) has already been taken by someone else, we give our guest alternatives or let them choose an other username.
In the case they gave a name that includes a space (it's likely that this is their real name), we should point up this fact to them.
Until their session expires they should be able to change their email address, so if it's spelled wrong, they'll still be able to "activate" their submission.. and their account :)

This could be a nice add-on.

Please Overlook the following comment if you feel uncomfortable with apologies, Greeks, Ouzo or can't handle my cool rhymes:Sorry for any grammatical errors, I'm Greek and I'm drunk. A not so good combination, but hell of a nice recipe to flow the inspiration. yo...

XenForo developer

Well-known member

This need to be in the priority list to be fix/change in xf style
I know I can play with some code and make it look better than just tiny text "no permission to reply" by editing my forum style. but, I believe the default style need to look better maybe have something like this for now

Well-known member

I'd like to see a paid to register tied into the subscriptions system if that's at all possible. Not sure whether that is in the plans of the register area though but I thought I'd throw the suggestion across

Well-known member

For members, XenForo is fantastic - by far the easiest to use forum solution. However, try viewing this thread as a guest... the only prompts to encourage a person to sign up and reply are a "log in or sign up" tab in the top right and a very small "(You must log in or sign up to reply here.)" notice in the bottom right. It's so easily missed and means that guests convert comparatively poorly in to members for stock installs.

If this feature isn't going to be part of the core anytime soon (although I hope it will be @Mike @Kier ), I'm sure there's a very good opportunity for a developer here.

I'm genuinely surprised that the first post doesn't have more likes (which is how this would be noticed by the developers), as this option would benefit everyone in terms of improved signup rates (hence: interaction, page views, ad revenue, etc...).

Here's a very quick mock-up of what it could look like. When you got to the bottom of this thread as a guest viewer, which are you most likely to engage with? The tiny sign up button, or the easy call to action?

Well-known member

@nrep
I love the mockup. Maybe add another field below the "Pick a Username" with "Add a Password" ... this mimics the login function. Maybe the area could be ajaxed ... so that the registration happens and the post goes to moderation to avoid spammers.

Well-known member

Please add a function that lets users post right away and then takes them through the registration process. This will greatly increase guest to member conversion.

How it could work:

User reads a thread and sees the reply box at the bottom.

The user decides to enter a reply, a username and password and submits

A notification informs the user that an email confirmation has been sent to his email address and that the post will become visible after registration is complete.

The user clicks the email confirmation link from a received email and is taken to the website.

On the same page, the user fills in all needed profile fields (if any)

The user is taken back to the post, which is visible now.

If the user does not complete the registration immediately, the user will receive an email per X days to remind him that his posts will become visible after registration is completed.
If the user does not complete the registration within X days, then the post is deleted.
If account approval is active, then the account will need to be reviewed by staff as an extra step between step 5 and 6.